Unlike the non—outing of a non—covert agent Valerie Plame, which Bob Woodward says an informal CIA assessment determined had no consequences, the leak of the holding of Al Qaeda prisoners on former Eastern bloc countries is having real consequences:

EASTERN European countries were yesterday scrambling to distance themselves from the CIA as officials in Washington searched for the source of an embarrassing leak that exposed a programme of secret jails for terrorist detainees. 
 
Claims that the CIA has been hiding prominent Al—Qaeda members at a so—called 'black site' facility in eastern Europe have prompted angry denials from Romania, Poland and Albania.

As details emerged yesterday of CIA flights to remote military airfields in northeast Poland and southeast Romania, George W Bush's administration ordered an internal inquiry into how classified data was leaked to The Washington Post and Human Rights Watch, a New York—based group.

Senior intelligence sources blamed the leak on CIA officers unhappy at having to maintain what one former counter—terrorism official described as 'secret gulags'. [emphasis added]

Is there any point of continuing to maintain an intelligence agency which is so determined to countervene the War on Terror that it reveals our deepest secrets to the world?

Clarice Feldman  11 06 05